Flor

This exhibition is dedicated to the Mexican photographer Flor Garduño, and presents the images collected in his book “Flor”, recently published in Europe and in the United States, which tells the story of a woman’s life: first as a child, then an adolescent, and finally mature and experienced, but always idiosyncratic and always beautiful. Objects, masks, animals, flowers and veils are used to suggest a myth concerning the entire origin of the “feminine”, in which women’s bodies draw into themselves a sacredness which stems from their dedication to life. By contrast, an allusive role and presence are given to the “masculine” element, which is cited only through considered symbols: a sword, pistols, a shaft of light. This constant duality of bodies and objects creates the key to a privileged reading of the works.
In all the images, both in the figures of the women and the symbols that represent them, we recognise a deliberate creative act, a voluntary intervention. They are artificial, therefore, but in the pure literary sense of something made with art, because only in this way can the images and symbols come to life in an original and profound fashion.
However, in all these works any possible interpretation or analysis of meaning takes on a secondary importance to the beauty of the images, which capture the gaze with the balance of their forms and the clever use of chiaroscuro.